FBI no stranger to Muncie

It’s fair to say that it’s not rare for such probes to be concluded without related criminal prosecutions.

Not that the general public is generally aware when those investigations end — or begin. Federal authorities rarely acknowledge what they are investigating, or why.

Generally word surfaces about such cases when someone who has been questioned, or asked for documents, makes that known to others.

The Star Press reported in recent days that the FBI is investigating Muncie city government. While the agency will neither confirm nor deny that it is conducting an investigation, officials and other individuals said they were contacted by federal agents or had spoken to people who had.

The elements of the investigation generally known include building demolitions conducted by the city, sometimes involving a private company founded by city building commissioner Craig Nichols; the termination earlier this year of city employee Gretchen Cheesman, who later offered to tell Mayor Dennis Tyler what she knew about what she called “alleged misconduct” by officials in return for Tyler changing her status from fired to retired and restoring her benefits; and activities by the Muncie Sanitary District, including the purchase for $395,000 of a former flea market building that sold weeks earlier for $150,000.

Sometimes officials whose administrations are being scrutinized publicly acknowledge that, as Mayor Tyler did in recent days.

In other instances, officials — aware they’re unlikely to be contradicted by the tight-lipped feds — have denied the existence of such investigations.

In the early 1990s, federal investigators were looking into the troubled history of the construction of the Delaware County Justice Center — including the circumstances that saw then-Muncie Mayor James P. Carey abruptly withdraw city participation from the project.

The Muncie Evening Press reported local citizens and officials had been questioned about that topic by federal agents.